In modern mobile devices, interactions are often performed through touch actions performed using a touch interface. The touch actions are normally accomplished with a digit, for example a finger, a stylus, or some other suitable pointing device. While the touch interface provides additional functionality not available on computing environments using a pointer-style interface and a device to move the pointer, such as a computer mouse or other suitable device, some standard functionality is also lost in the touch environment. For example, in a pointer-style interface, a user can “hover” over a location and/or user interface (UI) element on a computer display. The user's hover action can then be used to trigger a specific hover event, such as the display of a tooltip UI element to provide more information associated with the location and/or UI element or to signal intent of the user to select the UI element. However, the ability to detect hover-type actions and to generate standoff-events are generally not provided on touch interfaces. The inability to perform hover actions on a mobile device touch interface limits both the usability of the mobile device and the touch interface.